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Bon Voyage

The Swedish pop super troupers ride again with their first new album in 40 years.

By Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone

ABBA
Voyage
POP (Capitol)

early 40 years ago, ABBA were in the studio for one last time, to cut a tragic ballad called "The Day Before You Came." They knew this was goodbye; both couples in the group had divorced. Agnetha Fältskog recited the bleak tale of emotional isolation, words scripted by her ex-husband, doing her vocals in a darkened studio with all the lights out. It was the last thing they ever recorded. A splendidly melodramatic finale for this most melodramatic of pop groups. And that -- as far as the world knew -- was that for ABBA. Until now.

So how the hell did this happen? The Swedish super troupers ride again with Voyage, and there's never been a comeback story like this one: all four original members of a great pop band, reuniting after 40 years apart, with all their powers intact. This album would be a one-of-a-kind historic event even if the songs blew -- but it's vintage ABBA, on par with their classic 1970s run. It evokes the days when the Norse gods ruled the radio, combining two of the Seventies' hottest trends: heartbreak and sequin-studded pantsuits.

For Björn, Benny, Anni-Frid, and Agnetha, their last album was the 1981 synth-pop gem The Visitors. But since then, the ABBA legacy has just kept booming. If the pop-star scale goes from "obscure" to "legendary," ABBA zoom right off the chart and land on "Cher tribute album, right after the scene in Mamma Mia 2 when she steps out of a helicopter to belt 'Fernando.'"

Voyage piles on the tragic drama -- it's a whole album of "The Winner Takes It All," without any "Take a Chance on Me." Now that they're all past 70, they haven't exactly lost their appetite for emotional-crisis soundtracks. Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson wrote the songs, leaving the singing to the ladies, Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They put Voyage together while plotting their 2022 "virtual" live residency in London. These concerts won't have mere holograms -- instead, they've got what they call "ABBA-tars."

"Don't Shut Me Down" is the prize of the new tunes: Fältskog prowls outside her ex-s home, waiting for the right moment to knock on his door for the first time in years and seduce him. It's a completely over-the-top scenario -- ABBA's specialty -- in the style of their Seventies disco bangers, complete with "Dancing Queen" piano frills. "No Doubt About It" goes for Eighties synth glitz, while "Just a Notion" is a frisky Seventies leftover, with vocals recorded in 1978.

It wouldn't be an authentic ABBA album without some filler, so beware before you brave the Christmas ditty "Little Things." But Voyage reflects where ABBA have traveled, musically and emotionally. There's no attempt to get up to date with the bops the kids are into these days. Instead, they stick to their classic sound. It's a surprise to have these Swedes back in the game. But a bigger, sweeter surprise that they returned so full of musical vitality. All these years after "Waterloo," ABBA still refuse to surrender.  

Voice Notes

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss share a few pieces of singing advice
upon the release of their latest collaboration, 'Raise the Roof'.

By Hilary Hughes in Entertainment Weekly

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
Raise the Roof
ROCK (Rounder)

Have a new perspective
Both artists have a decades-long relationship with the mic: Alison Krauss began performing on stage as a child, while Robert Plant's voice has been blasting over radio waves since Led Zeppelin I. But the plan on the new-covers album Raise the Roof diverged from past solo efforts. "There's no point in looking back at what we did before, because every song requires a totally different approach," says Plant. "Whether or not it's necessary to stoke it up and give it something hard and strong vocally, it always will be its own territory."

Find inspiration in the uncomfortable
Krauss says she and Plant initially treated the album as an experiment, which allowed renowned producer T Bone Burnett -- who also helmed the 2007 Grammy-winning Raising Sand -- to push the veterans into new terrain. "We were like, 'Well, we don't know what this is gonna be,'" she recalls of their uncertainty. "The plan was to go in [and] if it didn't work, so be it -- it was really just for fun. T Bone said to both of us, 'My goal is to make you very uncomfortable.' That's exactly what he did. I was singing songs, lyrically, that were still comfortable for me to sing -- meaning I never lost what I'd be comfortable saying. But the atmosphere, the musicians, the treatment of the songs were very different for me -- and also for Robert."

Keep your cool
When it comes to voice maintenance, they follow simple guidelines: Krauss gets plenty of sleep, while Plant takes a page from Aretha Franklin's playbood and avoids extreme heat or cold. "I don't exactly come from the land of ice and snow," the Englishman says with a nod to Zeppelinian lore, "but I do come from a very temperate climate."  

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